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July 18, 2013 Leave a Comment

A Conversation with Disney Animator David Block, Part 2

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A Conversation with Disney Animator David Block, Part 2

Get ready to be inspired by my conversation with veteran Disney animator, David Block.

In the interview David and I talk about:

  • the special qualities that animation brings to storytelling
  • the aesthetic differences between traditional hand-drawn and computer animation
  • David’s revered animation mentors
  • the distinctiveness of commercial animation
  • what businesses are learning from animation techniques

Enjoy the conversation!

Filed Under: The Comic Muse Podcast Tagged: , , , , , , ,
June 11, 2013 Leave a Comment

Take Off Your Battle Armor: The Virtues of Vulnerability

When we prepare to submit our “profile” to the world, especially when we’re first starting out, we tend to dress ourselves in battle armor. We tend to wrap ourselves in the flag of our mission and to declare our cause in slogans and vision statements.

It makes a certain amount of good sense. We want to tell the world about our virtues so that we can help the world in its vulnerability.

Unfortunately, this is not how the deepest connections between human beings are made.

Think about your relationship with your spouse or with your best friends. Your connections with these people require that you become vulnerable to them, that you show them your humanity, warts and all. Your best friends need to know that you are just as frail a creature as they are.

Then, in that space created by your shared humility, the strongest of emotional bonds is forged.

Telling stories about yourself, your company, your endeavor, is a great way to reveal your vulnerability. Stories are about failure. Stories are about weakness. Stories are about pride. Stories above all are about the conflicts generated by failure, weakness and pride. But what is a conflict, really? At its deepest level, a conflict is a process of education or maturation in which we are led, sometimes kicking and screaming, out of ignorance and into wisdom.

We need to hear about your limitations so that we can forge a bond with you. We need to understand how your mission statement or your pitch is the result of a hard-won struggle with yourself, with others, with the environment in which you work.

This doesn’t mean that you need to reveal personal failures that have nothing to do with your business–that would be inappropriate. It simply means that you need to communicate to your professional audience some of the ways in which you are human just like they are.

Tell the world about your vulnerability so that we can connect and help one another.

Filed Under: The (More or Less) Daily Muse Tagged: , , , , , , ,
May 23, 2013 2 Comments

What It Takes to Connect in the Connection Economy

If Seth Godin is right, and I believe he is, that we now live in a post-industrial, connection economy, then it behooves us to learn the language of connection.

Think about it: what do you connect with? What makes you feel like you’ve really established a bond with a person or an institution?

For me, it’s the sense that I’ve been listened to and understood.

The sense that I’ve been valued.

The sense that someone is “speaking my language.”

In a business setting, the sense that a product or service or event taps into my most cherished interests and desires.

The impatience to share the experience with others.

But for a great connection to happen, there must be great communication. Someone has to speak or otherwise convey the understanding and the appreciation and the excitement that is going to create a bond.

This usually doesn’t happen in a PowerPoint presentation. Or a white paper. Or a memo. Or a speech. Or a conventional newsletter. Or standard web copy.

Sometimes, but not often.

So where does it happen?

The customary medium of great communication is that of a story.

In a story, as Robert McKee defines it, idea (a truth) is wedded to emotion (what we are most passionate about) and a connection is made between two or more human beings.

Godin further argues that what drives the connection economy is “art.” Works of “art,” broadly defined, are works that communicate ideas that connect to our most cherished, most human interests and desires.

And what’s the paradigmatic human art? Storytelling.

So this is my syllogism:

We live in a connection economy.

Connections are best made through great stories.

The connection economy requires great stories.

So, how are you adjusting to the connection economy?

What are the media you are using to make real connections?

In what ways is it possible for you to incorporate great stories in your media?

If you would like some assistance in thinking through these questions, I’m here to help you. Don’t hesitate to contact me at 571-419-3990 or [email protected].

 

* The painting imaged above is “Wandering Storyteller with a Magic Lantern” by Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749).

Filed Under: The (More or Less) Daily Muse Tagged: , , , , , , , ,